Aiji, A Blanket Fic
by That Nanda
Summary: A different twist on the typical blanket scenario. Complete.
1. Part 1 Introduction

Aiji: A Blanket Fic 

Part 1

Inuyasha leapt through the knee-deep snow drifts, his feet barely touching the ground before he sprang into the air again. His heart was racing and his lungs were burning, both from the freezing wind that assaulted his body and the frantic pace that he was keeping. Small, icy snowflakes stung his golden eyes, causing them to tear involuntarily and blur his vision. He blinked them away with a growl, and they slid down his cheeks, freezing before they reached his chin. His vision cleared, not that he could see anything. The blizzard made it impossible for anyone to see more than a few feet away from their face, even someone with keen, youkai eyes like his. Then there was the fact that there was nothing to see, had been nothing to see for miles, if in fact they had even traveled that far. He had no real way of knowing, with the sky as it was in it's present state, but he sensed that they had been traveling for several hours. Be that as it may, he had a nasty suspicion that they hadn't covered much distance in that time. Had he been traveling alone, he wouldn't be inching his way across this frozen wasteland. Had he been alone, he would never have found himself trapped out in the elements, even if a storm of this magnitude _was_ unheard of in these parts and was probably the work of malicious oni. More importantly, it wouldn't have mattered if he had; sitting in a tree with his back to the wind would have been enough shelter for him. But Inuyasha was not alone. He had Kagome to look after.

From the start she had slowed him down. She hadn't been able to keep up with him, so he'd had to slow his pace to accommodate her. Once the snow had begun to pile up, she had slowed even more. After a few hours, she'd had to stop and rest every few minutes, until finally she could go no further and had collapsed in the snow. Now she laid on her back, across his, their elbows linking them together. Carrying her hadn't been so difficult, despite the awkward position they'd had to resort to to accommodate her body. At first he had even thought that he could make up for lost time. But then the pains had begun. He would feel her body tense, and then she would scream in pain and fear, screams that were barely audible over the howling of the wind, yet were no less terrifying to Inuyasha. Her grip on his shoulders would loosen, and he would feel her weight slip from his back as she toppled into the snow. This had happened more and more frequently as time wore on. 

"Gods," he thought to himself, "what am I going to do?" As the thought flashed in his mind, Kagome began to moan again. He felt the all-to-familiar sensation of her muscles tightening and her arms loosening. This time he landed quickly and caught her before she fell. Shielding them both as best he could with the long sleeve of his coat, he looked down at the trembling girl in his arms. Her normally full, pink lips were blue and her blue-black hair glistened with chunks of ice. For the first time, he was glad that she no longer wore the skimpy little outfit she had always worn when they first met. The miko's robes she'd had to adopt to accommodate her changing figure may have been an uncomfortable reminder of Kikyo, but at least they offered more warmth. He hugged his precious cargo close to his body, as if attempting to absorb her pain and fear into him. At the very least, he hoped that his body warmed her a bit. Her screams were still strong, thankfully, for they proved that strength yet remained in her seemingly frail and fragile body. When her muscles finally relaxed again, he hefted her onto his back for what seemed like the hundredth time. Despite his demon strength he was beginning to tire; the stress of his enormous responsibility for her was thoroughly draining. He had to get Kagome to someplace warm and safe, and soon, or else she would die out here, and his child would die with her.


	2. Part 2 The Nest

Part 2 

He never had time to react. As he landed and prepared to jump again, the ground gave way beneath his feet. They collapsed into some sort of hole in the ground, falling several feet before landing in a painful heap of twisted arms and legs at the bottom. It seemed like minutes before Inuyasha could draw a clear breath again. The wind had been knocked out of him, and he was in pain, but nonetheless was he grateful for having landed on the bottom and breaking Kagome's fall. 

Laying still for a moment, he breathed through his nose in short, quick bursts, despite her weight on his lungs, scenting the area. They were someplace dark and entirely different from the snowy plains they'd been traversing only moments before. He sensed no immediate danger, and what he could smell was reassuring. Moving his limbs slowly and hesitantly, hoping that nothing was broken and finding, to his great relief, that nothing was, he gently rolled Kagome off of his back and onto the soft pile of brush that they had landed in. It was an immeasurable relief to no longer be laying in snow, but on a bed of rich earth and pine needles, dried and browned by age. Inuyasha glanced around, becoming more aware of their surroundings with each passing second. It seemed that they had fallen into a small, underground den of sorts. The walls and floor were nothing more than firmly packed dirt, the tunnel no more than a cavity that had been hollowed out of the earth. 

After a few minutes, when he finally realized where they were, he almost laughed. Out in the middle of nowhere, with no shelter in sight for miles, they had landed in a kitsune's nest. 

The ceiling was low, only about four and a half feet high. He tried to stand and found that he would have to slouch considerably just to move around, so he abandoned the idea and opted to explore on all fours instead. It appeared that they had landed in an outer tunnel. A few yards from where they had crashed through, the burrow widened into what must have been the main living area. Inuyasha crept slowly forward into the more open area, though he was fairly certain that there was nothing there that posed any threat to them. The smell of fox still lingered in the room, but it was an old, stale smell. No one had used the nest in years. 

_'Well, good.'_ he thought. _'No rival youkai to worry about.'_ Just below his relief, however, was a twinge of disappointment and fear. A nest had meant a family, with a female, a mother who would have known about bearing young and caring for them. He had hoped… Inuyasha quickly shook the thought away. There was no point in wishing for a rescue; they were alone in this place. 

Once he had fully inspected the nest for any signs of life, be they dangerous or otherwise, he then went about the task of setting up a makeshift camp. There was a small hearth in the corner of the room, and he hurriedly filled it with what he assumed were the splintered remains of an ancient dinner table. Using his silver lighter, the one with his name on it that Kagome had given him last spring on the anniversary of his unbinding, he lit the timber. Keeping half an eye on the hearth, to make sure that the flames remained small and contained, he cleared the area of brush and debris, then dug out a small pit in the center of the room for his mate to lie in. 

Then, crawling back out into the run, he grabbed the collar of Kagome's kimono with his teeth and dragged her into the living area, much like a bitch would her pups. He backed them into the room, then eased himself into a sitting position and pulled her into his lap. Trying his best to ignore the unhealthy shade of blue that she had turned so that he wouldn't go into a panic, he began to undo the ties that held together her robes. They had soaked through with snow and icy water, and were not at all improving her chances of survival. Ample practice over the last year and a half allowed him to make short work of her clothing, and soon he held her naked body to his bare chest, having also stripped himself down to the waist. His yukata, while wet on the outside, had not soaked through to his white under kimono, which amazingly enough was actually warm from his exertion, so he wrapped it around the parts of her that weren't immediately touching his exposed flesh. 

As he gently rocked her in his embrace, he scanned the low room for signs of things that might prove useful to their cause. The pickings were meager, but his eyes did happen upon an old blanket, which looked ratty, but also very thick. Perhaps later, when she had warmed a bit, he could wrap her in that and lay her in the small pit to rest. Then maybe he could…he could…? Could what? Get help? There was none to get, and he was deluding himself if he even entertained the notion for one second that he would leave her alone in this uncertain place. No, it was time to face the facts…they were stuck, and were completely at the mercy of the fates. And as with most of the tragedies that had occurred in his short but cursed life, he felt responsible. 

Inuyasha sighed miserably, bowing his head to kiss his woman lightly on her temple. What an amazing person, this mate of his. Above all else, she had chosen him. She had left behind her family and a world of modern comfort for these dark and dangerous times, so that she could be in his company. She had never complained, at least not out loud, and never looked back, at least not that he was conscious of… and who was he? The half-man who had separated her from her family and home, who had selfishly dragged her into this very storm… The man who had made her large with the child that might very well kill her in that godforsaken place, where it seemed that her only midwife was to be the last person on earth who would know anything about whelping pups… 

He had caused her so much pain, and yet she bore it all without objection, for him. She trusted him, and her trust was a gift she had bestowed upon him that he seemed incapable of reciprocating. He wanted to trust, desperately wanted to, but a lifetime of bitter betrayals came back to haunt him every time he tried to make that leap. In fact, it was the result of these insecurities that had found them out in the harsh elements, stranded in the middle of nowhere, with Kagome about to whelp. 

__

"She's too weak…" he'd muttered, "At the first sign trouble she'll go running back to her own time! She says that they have better medicines there. I'm not taking that chance, she stays with me!" 

_"Inuyasha, she's fit to burst any day now! I agree that you shouldn't be separated, but this is not the time to chase after vague rumors…" the elderly miko had warned. _

Sohe'd insisted that she travel with him… he hadn't traveled without her in years…and he promised that if her labor began, he would rush her back to Kaede. He hadn't counted on a freak snowstorm. Who would? He was convinced that strange magic was at work, but regardless, the storm had arrived, and Kagome had neither cursed him, nor complained. She had simply taken it in stride, and had hidden her pains from him when they had begun. She'd been so quiet about them that he hadn't even noticed that anything was amiss until she had collapsed behind him in the snow. 

"Weak!" he laughed bitterly, the coarseness of his voice a harsh intrusion in the heavy stillness of the kitsune's nest. "I must be an idiot…" 

Starting at the sound of his voice, Kagome's eyelashes began to flutter. With a soft groan, she pulled herself from out the dark recesses of unconsciousness and into awareness, rolling her head away from his chest to gaze up at him. 

"We've stopped." she mumbled groggily, rubbing her forehead.

"Yeah, well, I don't know about you, but had to. You're a lot heavier than you used to be." he teased softly. She managed a weak smile before an intense pain gripped her body and sent her face back into the hollow of his chest. He grabbed her hand, and she squeezing his back so fiercely that he thought the bones in his fingers might break.

"Ahhh…Owwwwwww…..OOOOWWWWWWW!!!!" she screamed, the cords of her neck standing out as she strained against the pain. Waves of fear and panic danced down Inuyasha's spine.

"K-Kagome?" he breathed uncertainly, when her muscles had relaxed again and the screams melted into the pitiful sounds of guttural moaning.

"I'm sorry…" she gasped out, slumping against his chest.


	3. Part 3 Quickening

*author's note - the word _aiji_ means "beloved child" 

Part 3

"Sorry? What are you sorry for?" he demanded, pulling her back away from his chest so that he could see into her eyes when she answered him. He had a desperate need to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling, for she was the only thing holding back gnawing dread that threatened to consume him entirely.

Kagome's head lolled down onto his forearm in a weak response to his shifting. Her eyes were dull, half hidden behind heavy lids and thick lashes, and when she spoke, her words came out as little more than an airy sigh. 

"I'm sorry Inuyasha…I'm sorry, you were right…I'm not strong enough…" 

His eyes widened in disbelief. 

"Baka!" he scolded, hugging the girl protectively to his chest. "Why would you start listening to my bullshit now, of all times?" He could feel the warmth of her breath against his collarbone as she rewarded him with a soft chuckle that made the churning in his stomach settle down a little. If she could laugh at a time like this, then he was right about how seriously he had underestimated her. When her face tilted back again to catch his gaze with her own, the heavy dullness in her eyes had abated some and she actually smiled at him. The sight of those upturned lips sent a warm surge through the weary hanyou, and he let out the breath he'd been unconsciously holding. Never before had he hoped so fervently to be proven wrong. 

"You don't think I'm weak?"

"Nah." he whispered, pulling her head back down to his chest so that he could bury his nose and mouth in the dark tangle of her wet hair. "You think I'd pick my mate so carelessly? Like I'd want a whelp with weak blood…" 

"You ass…" Kagome sighed, shifting herself to lie more comfortably in his embrace. "Do you have any idea how much I love you?" 

"I think I might…" he whispered back, pulling her into his lungs with each deep, calming breath. Kagome let a hand wander lazily up and down his body, tracing the lines of his muscles, amused by how they seemed to dance in ticklish response beneath the soft, gliding movements of her fingertips.

"Hey… don't tease." he chastised gently, placing the hand that was not otherwise occupied in cradling her to his body over her wandering fingers and pressed them flat against his chest. "This is hardly the time or place."

"Are you telling me?" she murmured, closing her eyes and nuzzling her face into him, trying to burrow in further against the warm, taunt flesh of his breast that stubbornly refused to yield. "Besides, I don't think there's room for you anymore."

He couldn't help but smirk in spite of himself. "Tell him I was here first."

"Inuyasha…"

"Alright, alright, I know…tell him _or_ _her_ I was here first."

"No, _Inuyasha_…" she groaned, squirming against him in growing discomfort. Inuyasha's breath caught in his throat, the cold sweat that had been nearly forgotten breaking upon his back once more.

"A-again?!" he gasped incredulously. "So soon?!" Despite his best efforts to keep up a calm, composed façade, his voice was threatening to give him away.

"H-h-hai!" Kagome managed to squeeze out between quick pants. 

He wasn't sure how or when it had happened, but at some point she must have reached up and grabbed two fistfuls of his hair, because his face was moving steadily downward toward hers as the contraction reached its peak. They were practically nose to nose by the time it leveled off, then slowly began to ebb. Kagome relinquished her hold, allowing his head to bob back up several inches, then released a deep breath that dissolved into a relieved whine as she wilting back into his lap. As he nervously stroked his palm down over her ample belly, trying to figure out a way, _any_ way to comfort her, he became increasingly aware of his lap, and how, for reasons unbeknownst to him, it suddenly felt very, very wet.

"Kagome?" he prodded gently, reluctant to disturb her any further, but unable to ignore the disquieting puddle that they were now sitting in, though he took some comfort in the fact that at least it didn't smell like blood. 

"Looks like we won't be making it back to the village after all…" she half laughed, half sobbed, her smile almost a grimace as she quickly wiped away the unwelcome tears trickling down the sides of her face with the back of her hand before they could roll into her ears. 

"What… happened?" he haltingly questioned, plucking at the damp fabric of his hakama and listening to the noise of moist suction as it pulled away from his leg. 

"It's nothing, Inuyasha…nothing serious. It's…my water broke." She stroked his troubled brow, reversing their positions as she now tried to offer _him_ some comfort. 

"Broke?" 

"It's Ok, it's supposed to happen. It just means…that the baby will be coming soon. It seems our little aiji can't wait any longer." 

There was a funny, indiscernible shimmer in her eyes that was begging him for something, but he wasn't sure what. He didn't know what to say to her, and was even less sure of what she wanted or expected from him, so in an attempt to compensate, he concerned himself with her more physical needs. 

"All that trouble I went to to get you warm and dry and you've managed to soak us both again." He shook his head in mock reproach as he eased her out of his wet lap so that he could fix things. He would see to it that she was made to be warm and dry again. This was something he could handle, something he could do for her. He hoped it could be enough. 

Leaving her wrapped in his kimono, he crawled over to the corner of the room where he'd taken notice of the blanket earlier. Leaning back on his heels, he gave it a good shake, letting fly several years of dust, pine needles, and the dried out husks of long dead insects, then held it up to the faint light cast by their small fire. The edges were worn, gnawed slightly here and there; probably from a family of field mice or some other small rodent that had taken up residence within its warm folds at some point over the last decade or so. Other than that, it was in fairly decent shape. Most likely a bit too stiff and scratchy for Kagome's liking, but they didn't have a lot of options open to them, and she'd know better than to turn her nose up at it. Hell, it could have looked like mold and smelled even worse for all he cared, so long as it kept her warm.

Pivoting, he shook it out again, this time over the shallow pit he'd dug for her to rest in, and let the far edge drape across it, covering the bottom. The one thing the blanket had going for it was its size, he noted with some satisfaction. It was quite big. Kagome would be able to lie on one half while covering herself with the other, and still have room to spare. 

_'Room for me.'_ he thought, and not unpleasantly, as he could no longer pretend that the cold and damp weren't affecting him. _'Plenty for both of us…with a little left over for…anyone else who might come along.'_


	4. Part 4 Kagome

Part 4

It was unlike any movie that she had ever seen, and that included the one she'd been made to watch in her seventh grade sex ed. class that was designed to scare teen girls away from the situation she now found herself in. She marveled at how miserably they had all failed at an actual depiction of what seemed to be so commonplace, how woefully short of reality they fell. There was no grim-faced yet determined doctor perched between her upright knees, no kind, helpful nurses to wipe her brow and cheer her on, to tell her that she was doing great, almost there and "Push, Kagome, push!" There was no father by her side, beaming with pride through his anxiety, holding her hand or feeding her ice chips, all while whispering sweet words of encouragement into her ear. No, there were no comforting clichés in that dark and dusty little room. Instead, the pains hit, she screamed, and the only member of her cheering section looked only slightly better off than she did, the expression on his face anything but comforting. He had tried to hold her hand at one point, but she had dug her fingernails so forcefully into his flesh that she had drawn blood, so she hadn't accepted it again.

Nothing had prepared her for this. Not the countless books with the cute little titles or the stupid Lamaze training which she now realized _had_ been a total waste of time, just as Inuyasha had predicted. Even Kaede's well-meaning advice had been driven out of her head by a white hot _'What the hell does she know?! She's never done this!'_ the moment the first _real _contraction had claimed her. All the kiegel exercises in the world could not have prepared her for this pain.

It did not feel like a wave, that would wash over her and away again, as some of the books had suggested, nor the severe cramps that Sango had guessed at. Even her mother's dire warnings in which she comparing it to being run over by a MAC truck didn't quite measure up. With each new exhausting, excruciating contraction, Kagome was rapidly becoming convinced that hers was an entirely original sort of pain, unique to herself and her situation. She was fairly certain that if any other woman before her had been privy to what she was experiencing now, the human race would have ended a long time ago. This was a sharp, shining new pain, the feeling that she had been slit from her groin to her breast with a hot, dull knife and now someone was trying to peel back the layers of skin and muscle and turn her inside out. 

And it was not over quickly, as those same faulty movies had suggested. For hours she had been at this, and hours still dragged on in the dim light and the stale air of the nest. How had her own mother survived this? And then gone on to have Souta, no less? Perhaps she really _hadn't_ felt what Kagome was now feeling? Was this pain a special sort, reserved only for foolish young women who had gone against their own species and mated with youkai? Had the gods seen fit to punish a young miko for giving her heart and body to the very same monsters she was sworn to protect against? For creating a new sort of hybrid beast, neither human, youkai, nor even hanyou? 

What a ridiculous notion. She couldn't imagine an infant being any more wanted by its parents than the one inside of her, now struggling to come out.

Granted, they'd been a little shocked at first. She had honestly thought that taking the same precautions that one would take with a human boy would work just as well with Inuyasha. She had been mistaken. Only a few brief months after they had become lovers, she had found herself standing in her bathroom at home, face to face with the inescapable truth of a pair of light blue plus signs. She hadn't even needed to wait the full minute. 

But after the initial shock had passed, and once they had managed to coax Inuyasha down from Kaede-bachan's roof, she had to admit that she'd never been happier. She was a little disappointed in herself for not having finished high school, but since she had ultimately decided to stay with Inuyasha in the sengoku jidai, she supposed it didn't really matter all that much. She often missed her family, but Inuyasha and the others were good to her, and when he sensed that she was growing a bit too sad with longing to see her mother, he would take her back for a visit. No one knew for how long they'd be able to continue to shuffle back and forth between time periods, which made every visit more special and complicated than the last.

It was during one such visit that her mother had begged them to stay, at least until after the baby was born. Kagome had found the offer quite tempting, and had said as much, but Inuyasha had been adamant in his refusal. For every logical reason that Kagome's mother could come up with for them to remain, he had countered with his own brand of "logic." "Proper prenatal care" was countered with "This village stinks. The smell is bad for the pup," "Better medicines" was met with "Meat is better for you when it's fresh, like right after I kill it," and to "Over here, we have actual doctors!" he responded with a resounding "Keh!" and an overly sarcastic "Amazing I'm still alive!"

As much as she hated to see them arguing, and as tempting a prospect as the availability of an epidural at the time of birth seemed, Kagome ultimately found herself siding with her mate, though not due to his fallacious reasoning. Arguments aside, it all boiled down to the fact that it was far too dangerous for her baby to be born in a modern hospital. If there was even the slightest chance that the child resembled Inuyasha in any way… The thought had made Kagome shudder, and she had wrapped her arms around her then tiny mound of a belly protectively as she imagined what the fate of her child might be if that were the case. Being part youkai may have been frowned upon in the sengoku jidai, but in a modern world were spirits and monsters were now a part of make- believe, a youkai child would be considered a freak, or a horrible birth defect. She could envision an endless parade of drug tests and social workers, as the saintly doctors tried to figure out just what exactly she had done to herself to create a child that looked so inhuman. And while all of this was going on, where would Inuyasha be? The anachronism of Inuyasha in a hospital was so bizarre that she couldn't even summon the picture in her mind, never mind the fact that he'd raise too many suspicions and would probably refuse to go in the first place. 

No. She would not take that chance for the sake of some physical discomfort.

Of course, that had been back before she had learned what a labor pain actually felt like.


	5. Part 5 Necessity

*Author's note* - _Hibachi_ are ancient Japanese heating devices, made of ceramic, wood or metal, in which ashes are laid in and a charcoal fire is kindled, warming the room.

Part 5

Inuyasha poked his head out of the hole in the ceiling that they had first come crashing through, looking rather like a large burrowing animal as he blinked the snowflakes from his eyes, peering across the barren, blindingly white expanses of land that lay out in either direction. With his left hand, he scooped up large fistfuls of virgin snow, packing them firmly into the iron kettle that weighed heavily in his right. He had been asked to boil water, and that was what he intended to do. While the necessity for said water escaped him entirely, he did not question it. All that he needed to know was Kagome had asked him to do it, and that it was something tangible he could do; so much the better than sitting by helplessly, watching her suffer as he struggled with himself to keep from breaking in fear and frustration. 

His celebrated strength and power had amounted to nothing. He'd fought countless battles to protect her, used the Tetsusaiga to send hundreds of nameless enemies to their graves, and now he found himself completely and utterly powerless. He couldn't protect her from the agonizing pain inflicted upon her by their own child. There was nothing he could do to stop it, and nothing he could kill in retaliation. He was terrified. 

Things had taken a dark turn over the last few hours. Kagome had started running a low-grade fever. It's arrival had been heralded by complaints of a slight, all-over chill in her body, so he'd taken little notice of it at first. How could he have known? He was freezing himself; the pervasive cold had become an accepted element of their present situation. It would have been more startling to him if she'd suddenly proclaimed that she _wasn't_ freezing. Even so, he'd stoked the fire, crouching next to it much longer than necessary so as to absorb as much of the heat into his bare skin as he could. 

__

"Here you go," he'd quipped, joining her beneath the blanket,_ "One hanyou hibachi for my…" _

What had followed were a few horrible moments in which their naked bodies touched and he realized that, even though she was shivering violently, her skin was unnaturally warm. 

__

"Kagome, are you feeling alright?" It was a ridiculous question, considering the circumstances, but he hadn't known what else to say. 

"I don't know… Inuyasha? I-I'm so c--c-cold!" she had whimpered.

__

"I think you have a little fever, Kagome." Little, he'd assured her. There'd been no sense in alarming her, even if his own heart had clenched as each syllable had dropped from his dry, wind-burned lips. 

__

"What should I do?" he'd asked. 

__

"Do?" She'd begun to moan nonsensically, shifting about in her discomfort, burrowing deeper within the folds of the blanket to escape the aching cold. 

__

"Didn't you ever read about anything like this in the books?" he'd persisted, prodding her gently with the pads of his fingers. She'd let out a short, sharp bark of laughter, the harshness of which had startled him. 

__

"Not exactly! I think this is beyond their definition of 'worst case scenario,' Inuyasha!" He remembered wincing at the remark, but his own bruised ego was laid aside as she began to shiver violently, the staccato tapping of her teeth filling the small room. 

__

"Kagome," he'd pleaded, _"What can I do?"_

"Just sit here with me."

" I can't! I can't just sit here! Isn't there anything-"

"Boil some water."

Which was how he found himself where he was now, barely clad, packing freezing handfuls of snow into an old kettle until his fingers were pink and raw from it.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome called weakly from somewhere behind him in the den. Ducking back inside, he quickly answered her call.

"What's wrong?" 

"You were taking so long…" she said in a weak, airy sigh. "Please don't leave me like that again."

"I had to get water, Kagome." he said softly, placing the pot inside the hearth. "Well, snow. So I can boil it, remember?"

"I know…" she whispered, "I just really need you here." Inuyasha rubbed his hands together briskly holding them low to the fire. He wasn't going to touch her tortured flesh with frozen hands.

"I don't see why." he muttered bitterly, mostly to himself. "I'm not helping at all."

"You are." she said, her tone of voice suddenly firm and unflinching. He was surprised; he hadn't meant for her to hear. 

"It doesn't feel like it." he answered, turning away from the fire to cast his eyes on his mate. His own voice felt hollow in comparison. Kagome nodded, regarding him seriously despite the shaking of her limbs. 

"More than you know." Leaning over, Inuyasha reached out his warmed hands and placed them on either side of her face. 

"Does that feel alright?"

"Yes…" she sighed, closing her eyes.

"When did you have the pains last?" he asked, rubbing the flat of one palm up her cheek and over her forehead, surreptitiously feeling the heat of her skin to see if it had lessened or increased since he'd left her, and found that he couldn't really tell. 

"A few minutes ago…" she said softly, "While you were gone." It wasn't in any way a reproach, but her words had the same effected on him. 

"I'm sorry." 

__

"It's not your-" Kagome began, but he halted her mouth with a brush of his thumb.

__

"Yes it is." he said hoarsely, his eyes shimmering with intensity in the flickering firelight. "That's just it, Kagome. This whole thing _is._"


	6. Part 6 Bearing Down

Part 6

It was coming, though they didn't know it yet. Kagome shook her head sadly as she watched her mate watching her intently, wanting to assuage his doubts, but before she could even open her mouth to respond, the clenching pain of another contraction rolled up and devoured her. With her chin pulled into her chest, and her teeth gritted against the assault, she huffed and groaned as she tried to ride it out. Before long, she had thrown her head back in what could very nearly be described as a howl of suffering. 

"Kagome, I'm sorry!" Inuyasha growled, his brow lowered in a strange, strained combination of furious anger and abject misery. He appeared seconds away from hurting someone, and Kagome suspected that that someone was her husband. The look of him tugged at her heart, and she genuinely wanted to assure him that she would be all right, that she didn't blame him for any of this. Unfortunately, she was not quite over the hump of the contraction, so any sympathy that she might have mustered for him at this late point was quickly soured by her own fear and discomfort. As wine gone off soon becomes vinegar, sympathy quickly curdled into annoyance. She glared back at him with flashing eyes and returned his growl.

"Enough already! It's nobody's fault!" It had been a long time since Keade's beads had been lifted from his shoulders, but he'd found that at times like this, when he could almost believe that he saw tiny licks of flame leap up behind her pupils, that his eyes still widened reflexively, and his right arm, followed by his right elbow and shoulder, through no conscious effort of his own, came around his body in a rigid, protective arc; what he had once considered the "last line of defense" between Kagome's anger and his cringing, cowering body. No matter how much time had passed or how many times he'd told himself that she couldn't possibly do it anymore, when she looked at him that way, his body still anticipated the "sit." 

"But Kagome-" he breathed, silently willing his muscles to unclench. It was downright embarrassing. 

"Stop it! Listen to me! I need you with me on this. I can't do it alone. If you're going to concentrate all of your energy on feeling angry at yourself, then I'm not going to make it through this! Now are you with me or not?" He wasn't sure himself, but there was something about the way she sat up and looked at him that made his uncertainty seem ludicrous. She was panting lightly now, her face glowing in the cast-off firelight with a fresh sheen of perspiration, but it seemed that the pain had passed for the moment. That wasn't so unusual. Discounting the large, swollen belly, he'd seen her wet and naked a thousand times before, and that wasn't counting all the times he'd spied on her in the bath before he'd taken her as a mate. 

Mostly it was her eyes. Rarely had he seen her so determined while simultaneously looking so very frightened. Maybe once before; as she'd been preparing to pull the arrow out of his chest. Drawn in by them, he found himself almost unconsciously gathering his own resolved as he stared back, slowly exhaling an opaque, misty-white puff of moist breath into the chilled air of the room. 

"Alright," he said in a low voice, "What should I do?"

"Wash your hands."

"What? Why?" He was beginning to regret that he'd refused to watch any of those "video" things Kagome had been so insistent upon whenever they'd gone to visit her mother. He'd obviously missed something important. 

"Because I'm going to need you to look down there and tell me what you see," she said unflinchingly, "And dirty hands could hurt both me and the pup." 

"Kagome, I can't-" he false-started, then tried again when he was met with a very displeased frown. "I don't know anything about…"

"I can't do it myself and there's no one else here. It has to be you." She stopped then, her eyes squeezing tightly shut as the pain crept up and overwhelmed, holding her in its grip once more. She had barely had time to recuperate, let alone prepare herself, and in the back of his mind, he was vaguely aware that there had to have been some sort of significant change, for barely a moment had passed between the end of the last attack and the start of the new. When this, too, finally passed, it occurred to him all at once that they may very well be running out of time. It was strange and startling, he thought, how it could happen so suddenly (though had he voiced this thought, his mate would have been all too ready to offer up her own opinion on how "suddenly" it had all transpired). Wasting no further time, he plunged his hands into the kettle, almost completely unaware of the grimace of pain he wore on his face, elicited by the scalding heat as he scrubbed his hands in the next-to-boiling water. 

He perched himself between her open knees, and when she indicated that she was ready with a slight nod, her spread them further apart. He didn't look until he had taken a few deep breaths in preparation, essentially steeling himself. As it turned out, it was probably a good thing that he had. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting to see, but what was revealed to him was upsetting enough. The skin between her thighs was a raw pink, and the once beloved and lusted after core was swollen beyond all recognition. The sight made him swallow hard as the now-familiar cold sweat rushed once again to his skin's surface.

"Do you see anything?" she asked quietly, a sliver of apprehension in her voice. 

"W-What…What am I looking for?" he finally managed.

"A head…or something?" She sounded as if she didn't know herself.

"A head?" he echoed, saliva pooling on his tongue.

"Or something?" 

"I don't see anything, Kagome. Just…" He didn't finish. He couldn't finish. He didn't have the vocabulary to describe what he was seeing. The closest he would be able to come, if pressed by some sadistic mind, would be the word "carnage."

"You don't see anything?" she asked, sounding more concerned with each passing moment. He shook his head, looking back at her contritely.

"I don't see anything that looks like a head."

"I don't understand," she cried, "Something's going on! It has to be, because it just doesn't feel the same anymore."

"Well…how does it feel?" he asked as she struggled to sit back up, certain that he didn't really want to know. This was confirmed an instant later, when Kagome's eyes flew wide open and her jaw dropped, her mouth forming a giant, silent scream. 

"Oh my god!" she mouthed overdramatically, though he had a feeling that despite the histrionics, she wasn't exaggerating in the slightest. "Mama was right, you just know!"

"Know what?! What is it?!" he cried, grabbing her hands. She squeezed back, trying to use his weight as a counterbalance and pull herself into a low squat.

"I have to push. Now."

"Now?"

"NOW!"

She grunted once, a single noise that she managed to sustain for the entire rise and fall of the contraction. The final lap had begun. Together they became the birth, and all conceptions of time and locality were lost to them. Their new reality was breath and sweat, screams and whispers. They lived within the pain, but more importantly, they worked in it. Kagome labored on her feet, squatting on the edge of the blanket. Inuyasha crouched down behind her, mimicking her stance, but while all of Kagome was intent on bearing down, Inuyasha bore her up, and when her strength wore thin and her knees began to buckle, he sat her on his knees. There was breath and sweat, there was water, salt, saliva and tears. And when they reached the end, there would be blood. 

*Author's note - Sending Niamh mental margaritas and much love for being an appreciative reader and a world of help.*


	7. Part 7 The Birth

*Note* - According to "Buddhist Corner," _Kappa_ smell like fish and are generally portrayed with the body of a tortoise, ape-like head, scaly limbs, long hair circling the skull, webbed feet and hands, and yellow-green skin. They are often depicted with a tortoise shell attached to their backs. To learn more about Kappa and their role in Japanese mythology, please visit   


Part 7 

She was burning. Later, if she somehow managed to get through this, she would tell anyone who would listen that it had felt like she was burning away from the bottom up. Not the all-consuming fire of a high fever, nor the sticky, oppressive heat of the city on an unbearably long afternoon in late summer, but rather like the glowing end of a cigarette, slowly smoldering its way up, leaving a short trail of ash in its wake. The blistering head of the cigarette was between her legs, and it burned steadily upward, creeping over her belly, slithering up between her breasts, wrapping around the back of her neck, all the way up to her scalp. From the roots of her hair to the tips of her fingers and toes, Kagome was burning. 

She was burning because she was stretching. Her skin was stretching in ways it had never before attempted. It would be tempting to say later (if there ever was a later, and please gods, she hoped there was a later) that she had been stretched "further than the female body was ever intended to stretch," but she was still lucid enough to know that it simply wasn't true. She had been made for this, and not in the general way that a woman's body is made to propagate the species. This was her destiny. She had come to staunchly believe in the years that had passed since she and Inuyasha had met, that her birth, and every moment of her life afterward, had been leading up to him. Their souls were connected, had yearned for each other over the long centuries, and once reunited, had become unable and unwilling to separate again. They had suffered greatly to get here, through countless years of pain and uncertainty, but even if this moment was truly the sum of her lifetime, of their bond, she feared it. She was stuck, stretched thin, and unbelievably wide. It may have been her destiny, but it burned. 

Inuyasha's solid, tangible presence had become her only faint reassurance. At present, she could feel his chest pressed against her back, their bare skin made slippery by her perspiration. She held tight to the same belief that had seen her through many hardships in the past; together, they could accomplish anything. Surely they'd made it through worse situations than the one they were in now, situations that made childbirth in a frozen hole-in-the-ground seem laughable. Even though she couldn't think of any offhand, she was sure there must have been at least one. 

Inuyasha was burning; his fatigue making him sweat. His muscles ached and his knees were beginning to tremble. His stamina had run out hours ago, and he was now holding up Kagome through pure force of will alone. It was too hot to think, which was actually the first good sign they'd had since her labor had begun. The heat and the sweat meant that at some point over the last hour, Kagome's fever had broken. Granted, they were right back to where they had started, but it was an immeasurable relief to have one less thing to worry about. Unfortunately, just as her body temperature had begun to return to normal, there had been a new development. The momentary relief he had felt as her skin had cooled was replaced in a heartbeat by panic as her entire body clenched violently. Something had changed, he knew, and these fears were confirmed an instant later when the screeching began. 

"I feel something! Reach down there now!" she screamed, before her words - and capacity for speech - were drowned in a tortured, wordless howl. The smoldering fire had erupted, and presently, something hard and solid was making its way out. 

Inuyasha tightened his grip under her breasts, holding her up while the pains rendered her unable to do so herself. "Just wait, Kagome," he grunted, arm and neck muscles straining. "I don't want to-" 

"Shut up and do it now!" she screamed, turning to shoot him murderous look over her shoulder.

"I don't want to do anything if I can't see where my claws are going!" he shouted back. "You're going to have to lay down!" 

"Fine," Kagome grunted, doubling over in pain once more. "Just hurry!"

Carefully, Inuyasha lowered her down onto the blanket. As she settled onto her back, he quickly dipped his hands back into the kettle, scrubbing them up to the elbow. When he believed his hands to be relatively clean, he turned back to look at her. What he saw made the color drain from his face. 

"Oh shit…" he mumbled, his jaw going slack. He held his dripping claws in front of him impotently, his palms turned up to the low mud ceiling. This couldn't be right. Swollen was one thing, bruised he could handle, could even understand, but no one had told him that there was going to be blood. While the sight of his own had never bothered him much, the sight of Kagome's gave him a sickening chill. There wasn't a lot, but he was beginning to understand why the humans in their village viewed whelps as such a mixed blessing. He'd never attended a birth - in fact, he hadn't planned to attend this one - but he couldn't help but feel as though something essential had been kept from him. 

Had Kagome known going into this that there was going to be blood? She seemed to have had a general idea about everything else that had happened. How could she not have? 

_'She's right, I am a stubborn idiot. I should have watched those videos. I should listened when she read from that book. I should have worn the fucking hat and gone to those stupid breathing class.' _

Awash in the scent of her blood, his stomach began to churn. 

__

'I should have left her with her mother.' 

"Keh," he muttered softly to himself. "Too late now." Breathing shallowly through his mouth, he took his position between her upright knees. 

Stretched. Burning. She could do this. The nurses weren't there, so she became her own cheering section. _Push, Kagome, push!_

"Inuyashaaaaaaa!" she screamed, her face twisted and contorted as she bore down on the unbearable pressure between her legs. Her hands clenched, grabbing fistfuls of the blanket so that she'd have something to use as resistance. The entire process felt much more difficult on her back. From somewhere out in uncharted space, somewhere far-off around her knees, Kagome could hear an anxious voice calling to her. She had a vague realization that something important was happening. 

"Kagome! Black hair! I see black hair!" 

"Black hair," she breathed between heavy pants, then groaned as the overpowering urge to push flared back up. Kagome's eyes rolled to white as she threw back her head, bumping it hard against the frozen ground beneath the coarse edge of the blanket. Her body trembled violently, her knees knocking into Inuyasha's elbows, distracting him as he tried to make out what was happening in the poor light. 

"Keep going!" he cried, placing a hand on either knee and pushing them gently, but firmly, apart. "Every time you stop, it slips back in." Kagome moaned wearily, lifting her head a few inches off the ground to look at her mate. 

"I can't," she whimpered, her eyes sliding closed again as she lowered her head back to the ground. "I can't keep it up for very long, it's too much."

Inuyasha grimaced, his left eyelid squeezing shut against the sting as a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead and into his eye. Keeping his hands firmly planted on of the tops of her knees, he ducked his head to rub his face against his upper arm, hoping to clear it out. The skin of his arms felt greasy and unpleasant against his face, and he began to growl out of sheer frustration. She could not give up. He was no doctor, but judging by the amount of sticky redness that had seeped from her already, he feared that stopping now would only kill her and the pup, and that couldn't be allow to happen. He wouldn't allow it to happen. His eyes ran up her body to her face, pained, flushed and panting, as his mind raced to come up with a solution. 

_'She was doing fine until now. What's different?'_

He was jarred from his thoughts as her flesh flexed and tensed beneath his palms. She was struggling against him, her knees fighting to push closed again. It was as he kneeled there, holding her knees apart as her heels made shallow trenches in the dirt floor, that it suddenly occurred to him what the problem might be. Kagome had insisted on remaining on her feet, squatting, since the need to push had first taken hold of her. He'd needed her to lie down, but being flat on her back was probably making things more difficult for her. She had nothing to brace herself against, no downward force. If this was the problem, or even part of the problem, he thought he knew how he could make things easier for her. Lifting her knees, he grabbed the instep of either foot and pushed her legs back until they were pressed tight against her body. 

"I know you're tired, but you don't have a choice!" Inuyasha roared at her. "Push, Kagome! You're almost there!" 

At the sound of his voice, tears began to seep from her eyes. Kagome squeezed them shut, and the hot pin-pricks of moisture ran out, melding with the thick sheen of perspiration on her face. "I am?" she asked. Her voice was thin and strained, but the question escaped from her lips on a breath of shaky laughter. She was almost there; he had said so. She could force herself to bear down once more. She could do this. 

She pushed. She strained with every ounce of her strength, worked with every fiber of her being, and she didn't stop until she felt something suddenly give. All at once, the burning was gone, and she heard Inuyasha cry out excitedly, "There's a face! Kagome, I see a face!" 

"Really?" she sobbed, relief flooding her every sense. "What does it look like?"

Inuyasha held his tongue. He knew he'd keep this particular opinion to himself for the remainder of his days, but from his perspective at that very moment, it looked remarkably like a Kappa. Instead, he placed a gentle kiss on the inside of her ankle.

"One more push, Kagome, and I think I can get the shoulders out." 

Kagome groaned, but she grabbed onto the edge of the blanket once more and summoned everything she had left, focusing on the burning sensation as she felt herself begin to stretch once more. 

Crouched between her knees, Inuyasha cupped his hands beneath the dark head of the infant. When a glistening, red shoulder peeked out, he began to tug ever so gently. With the sound of Kagome's grunts and screams ringing in his ears, he quickly freed the other shoulder from the birthing canal, and in another instant, the infant came free in a gush of light red fluid, soaking his forearms up to the elbow. 

"It's out!" he cried. Fumbling, he clasped the slippery infant to his chest. 

"It's out, " Kagome sighed, her shoulders slumping against the ground.

"Yeah," Inuyasha said softly as the infant drew its first breath, and a high, squalling sound filled the air of the nest, the shrillness of which effectively pinned his ears to the top of his head. _'What the hell do I do with it now?'_

"Which is it?" Kagome asked, fighting against immense fatigue as she struggled to prop herself up on her elbows to see their child.

Inuyasha looked down at the squirming infant uncertainly. It was very red, though whether this was its natural color, or a result of not having been wiped clean yet, he didn't know. Its eyes were closed, but its hair was most definitely dark, and it sported its ears on the sides of its head, where Kagome kept hers. It was screaming in something akin to outrage, so he had a clear view into its tiny mouth. Not a fang in sight. His nose confirmed what his eyes could not; the child was his, no question of that. But he saw nothing of himself in this child. 

"It looks human," he said finally, glancing back up at his mate, eyes filled with uncertainty. "You think that's possible?" 

Despite her exhaustion, Kagome actually chuckled. Her relief was beginning to make her feel giddy. "No, Inuyasha. I meant which is it, a boy or a girl?"

"Oh…" Blushing, he moved aside the umbilical cord. Kagome watched his face as he looked, and felt a warm surge of love as he glanced back up at her, his lips turned up in a silly grin. "It's a boy." 

There was a long silence during which they merely stared at one another stupidly, and then Kagome said, "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah?" 

"Can I see him?" she asked expectantly, holding her arms out to receive the infant.

"Oh! Right." Holding the infant to his body as though he was afraid it might try to escape, Inuyasha handed his son to his mate. Kagome accepted him eagerly, and immediately began to rain feathery kisses upon his perfectly miniature features. Standing off to one side, Inuyasha found himself at a loss as to what to do with his hands for the first time in hours. Eventually, he decided to go with the old standby and folded them over his chest. 

"Aiji…" Kagome cooed, holding the infant against her breast. Inuyasha blinked in surprise. 

"Aiji?"

"Yes, I think so," Kagome sighed, her eyes never straying from the baby's angry, little red face. "It's what we've always called him until now. It feels wrong to start calling him something else. Besides," she added, her voice lilting with gentle amusement, "I wouldn't want to confuse the poor thing."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes in mock incredulity and huffed, "Women," under his breath, but with her attention focused entirely on little Aiji, Kagome missed the gesture completely. Still, she noticed that there had been a considerable lag in the conversation on his part, so she asked softly "Do you mind?" She was smiling so brilliantly that he let the façade drop.

Breathing out slowly through his nose, he sighed, "I guess not. As long as it's not 'Miroku' or 'Sesshoumaru,' I'll be happy." As a gesture of good faith, he offered her a small grin, but by that point Kagome was hardly paying attention. 

"Inuyasha, can you…" she began, then trailed off as the baby began to squirm a bit, rubbing his tiny fists roughly against the sides of his face. 

"Can I what?" Inuyasha insisted, eager to help. Having watching Kagome bond so instantly to their son, he was beginning to feel like part of the scenery. 

"Can you cut the cord and tie it off?" she asked. "He needs to be cleaned."

His claws made quick work of the cord, and despite a weak-kneed moment after the placenta was delivered, Inuyasha cleaned and wrapped the baby in the last dry garment they had -- his white kimono. But before he was halfway through, the baby had begun to cry again, so as soon as Inuyasha was finished, he quickly handed the infant back to his mother. The shrill wail began to stave off almost immediately, and Inuyasha had an uncomfortable suspicion that, much like himself, Aiji preferred his mother. 

Smiling, Kagome put the baby to her breast, and began the awkward task of trying to get him to suckle. She stroked his cheek with the side of her thumb to get his attention, then eased her nipple into his mouth when he began to root blindly for it. As he jawed furiously at her breast, Kagome leaned down and whispered into her son's perfect pink ear, "Welcome to the world, Aiji. I'm your mama." 

Inuyasha peeked over her shoulder, peering down at the now-silent infant. Now that he was clean and looking much less...reptilian, he took his time to study the face that he'd supposedly helped create more carefully. He had no idea who this new person was, this boy named 'Aiji.' 

He watched as Kagome curled soft wisps of fine, downy black hair playfully around her fingertips, a knot of confused, conflicting emotions winding tightly in his chest. He didn't feel right, not how he'd expected to feel at all. There was relief, and admittedly, that seemed like a correct feeling. Both Kagome and the baby appeared fine, despite what they'd just come through. But what he couldn't understand was why he didn't feel…better. Happy. Proud. Something other than the anxiety - and though he would never admit it, even to himself, the pangs of jealousy - that he was feeling. Watching Kagome instantly fall for the kid only further added to his fears that there was something fundamentally wrong with him. A grown man feeling threatened by his own baby. Hell, even _he_ wanted to punch himself. 

"And this guy over here, with the ears," Kagome continued, turning her face up to catch Inuyasha's eye. "That's your dad." 

Feeling ashamed of himself, and more than a little guilty for where he'd been letting his thoughts wander, Inuyasha leaned forward to greet his son properly. As he bent down over Kagome's shoulder, a long strand of silver hair fell onto the baby's nose, startling him from his intent work at his mother's nipple. The infant shuddered, then yawned, stretching his little rosebud lips impossibly wide as a sweet, soft sigh escaped his tiny mouth. 

"I'm sorry, Kagome, I didn't mean to distract him," Inuyasha muttered uncomfortably. Aiji turned immediately at the sound of his father's voice.

"Nonsense," Kagome whispered back. "He just wants to get a good look at his Daddy, that's all." Sure enough, as the words were leaving her lips, Aiji's eyes cracked open for the first time.

"_Oh my_…" Kagome gasped, then looked up at the hanyou, smiling so broadly he feared her face might split in two. Following her eyes, he gazed down at the infant, and was mesmerized by what he saw. The child and his father stared at each other silently, regarding one another intently, two pairs of warm, honey-colored eyes, glowing in the faint light from the hearth.

"Those…" he breathed inaudibly. Kagome squealed with joy. 

"Everyone's going to know who _your _Daddy is, aren't they?" she sang gleefully, leaning in to rub Aiji's button nose against her own. The baby blinked his golden eyes in surprise at her sudden proximity and sneezed in agreement. Kagome pulled back and laughed, her voice cracking slightly from overuse.

"Right now he's thinking, 'Whoa! Too close Mom!'" she quipped, then smiling at the hanyou, she raised an speculative eyebrow. "Or maybe he's thinking, 'Dad, save me from this crazy lady!'" 

_'Dad, save me from this crazy lady…'_ Inuyasha blinked, feeling very suddenly as though he'd just been sucker-punched. _'Dad? Holy shit, that's _me_! I'm Dad!'_

But before he could fully retreat into that far-off look in his eyes, Kagome asked pointedly "Do you want to hold him?"

"Me?" he asked, as though there were someone else she could possibly be talking to. 

Kagome smiled reassuringly and nodded. "I could use the rest."

"Well if you're too tired, you'd better hand him over, then," he said brusquely, clearing his throat as his eyes darted off to a dark corner of the room. "Before you drop him or something."

"You're right, " Kagome said gravely, offering up Aiji. "I am a clumsy human, after all." She had to bite on her bottom lip. It kept the laughter safely contained inside and suppressed the enormity of her grin. 

Being very aware of his own strength, Inuyasha carefully lifted the small bundle that was his son to his chest, then immediately sat down. He knew that as deeply as she professed to love him, breaking the baby would be an unforgivable offense. He'd never be able to forgive himself, either. 

As his muscles began to let go of their pent-up tension, Inuyasha blew a short huff of exhaustion out through his mouth, disturbing Aiji's feathery shock of hair and sending strands flying in all directions, only to fall back and settle in a haphazard muss. As for the baby himself, he seemed largely unaffected. He'd fallen back asleep the moment his father had settled on the ground, and was happily suckling on the inside of his lip, no doubt dreaming about the breast.

_ 'I wish I knew what a father's supposed to be like, kid,'_ he thought, gently brushing the inside edge of a finger across one of Aiji's soft, pink temples, mindful of his claws. This would become a steady, internal mantra in his new life as a father; _Watch your claws, watch your claws, watch your claws…_

_'Tell you what, kid. I figure any dad has to be better than no dad at all, right? Even one who doesn't know what he's doing. Me and your Mom, see, we didn't have fathers, and we still turned out alright. So I figure as long as I protect you, teach you what you need to know, and keep you close, I can't mess you up that bad. So what do you say? I promise to watch out for you, and you promise to turn out alright, got that?' _

As if he did indeed, Aiji yawned and his tiny yellow eyes fluttered open. He regarded his father very seriously for a moment or two, then his tiny lips parted slightly and he burped. Inuyasha's eyebrows flew up behind the fall of his bangs, disappearing from view. 

"Not bad," he said softly, the corner of his mouth lifting in amusement. "Maybe I was wrong about you. I bet there's a lot more of me in there than you let on." He leaned closer, and as he did, Aiji grabbed a fistful of his father's snowy locks and seemed to tug experimentally.

"You know what I think?" Inuyasha whispered into his son's ear, his eyes darting to the side to twinkle wickedly as they glanced over at his sleeping mate. "I think you're mother's in for it now."

With Aiji now ignoring him and beginning to nod off once again, Inuyasha tucked the pup in the crook of his arm and slid in under the blanket, beside Kagome, back to back. 

"And don't worry," he added as an afterthought to the sleeping infant, his eyelids already drooping as he watched the small bundle rise and fall with each strong breath his son took. "I'm gonna personally make sure that Kaede-baba never drops anything over _your_ head." 

Before too long, while the storm raged on outside, Inuyasha and his small family found deep, deserved sleep beneath the tattered folds of the gray blanket. 

****

The End

*Authors note* First off, I'd like to thank Niamh. For her beta, of course, but mostly for her enthusiasm. I'd also like to thank Kira. For the beta, for going above and beyond, but more importantly, for being with me on this journey from beginning to end. Of course, I can't forget to thank Ithilwen for her beta as well, and for being her wonderful, nitpicky self and helping in ways that no one else could. Finally, I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to read, whether you've just stumbled upon this story, or have been following it for the better part of a year. Thank You. - Nanda 


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